Clause 4 - Revocation
Patents Bill
11:00 am
Mr Brian Cotter (Shadow Minister (Trade & Industry), Trade & Industry; Weston-Super-Mare, Liberal Democrat)
The Minister's last point was about withdrawing things and making difficulties in the European Community. I am not one of the ilk who want to withdraw in any way from the European Community, although of course there are issues to address, even with the European Community, which does not always get it right.
I welcome the support, qualified of course, of the right hon. Member for North-East Hampshire for the amendment. If people gave us more information, so that we could come back to the issue on Report, that would be very welcome. I appreciate that there is always a balance with this sort of thing.
The Minister may remember that in my previous speech on the Floor of the House I referred to some rather weird patents, one of which was to enable a ginger cat—not a black, grey or any other colour of cat—to get through a cat flap. There were 162 patents of a similar nature. I understand that one of the patents that went through was introduced by the ginger cat itself. That calls into question whether the patent should have been accepted by the Patent Office.